1966 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship Game
| 1966 NCAA Tournament Championship Game | |||||||||||||
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| National Championship Game | |||||||||||||
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| Date | March 19, 1966 | ||||||||||||
| Arena | Cole Field House | ||||||||||||
| Location | College Park, Maryland | ||||||||||||
| Referee(s) | Lenny Wirtz | ||||||||||||
| Attendance | 14,253 | ||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||
| Network | Sports Network Incorporated | ||||||||||||
The 1966 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship Game was the final of the 1966 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament and determined the national champion in the 1965–66 NCAA University Division men's basketball season. The game was held on March 19, 1966 at Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland. The Kentucky Wildcats, the number one ranked team in men's college basketball, faced the Texas Western Miners, who were ranked third in the nation. Texas Western's starting lineup of five African Americans was the first all-black lineup in an NCAA title game; their opponents, by contrast, fielded an all-white squad. The Miners won 72–65, claiming the school's first national championship in men's college basketball. Their victory challenged assumptions widely held about black players at the time, and major college programs intensified their recruiting efforts towards African-American players in the years following the game.
The Wildcats, coached by Adolph Rupp, began the 1965–66 season with an 83–55 win over Hardin–Simmons University on December 1, 1965. In road games at Virginia and Illinois, Kentucky prevailed by 26 and 18 points respectively. Wins in three games at home gave the Wildcats a 6–0 win–loss record, and the team was selected at number ten in the AP Poll, having previously been unranked. After three more victories by margins of 10 points or more, the Wildcats began play in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) on January 8, 1966, at Florida. Kentucky won 78–64, before a contest in Georgia that required two overtime periods. The Wildcats, by this time up to second in the national rankings, managed a four-point victory. The team reached number one in the AP Poll in the February 8 rankings, and Kentucky's undefeated streak continued into early March. In the Wildcats' next-to-last regular season game, Tennessee handed them their first loss, by a score of 69–62. With a 103–74 win over Tulane, Kentucky completed the regular season with a record of 24–1 (15–1 in conference play), and had the top ranking in the AP Poll. Forward Pat Riley was the team's leading scorer; including postseason play, he averaged 21.9 points per game, and his 8.9 rebounds per game also led the club. Guard Louie Dampier had a 21.1 point-per-game average and played the most minutes of anyone on the Wildcats' roster. Larry Conley led Kentucky in assists.
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